LADEE: A Flight of Firsts (Part 3) Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport

The first lunar flight from NASA Wallops/MARS

The Minotaur V rocket that will be carrying the LADEE spacecraft will be launching from a complex on the eastern shore of Virginia that is no stranger to rocketry activity. The Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport is located adjacent to, and operated in conjunction with, NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, VA, a complex that has been launching rockets for aeronautical research since 1945 when it was established by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor to NASA. Some sources estimate that this facility has conducted over 16,000 launches since its opening almost 70 years ago, but this will be the first with a lunar target.

Many flights have left Wallops/MARS aiming to place payloads into Earth orbit, and in a few weeks a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will be attempted there, but NASA Wallops specializes in sub-orbital science missions that never reach Earth orbit. Those rockets are called "sounding rockets." The flights carry scientific instruments up to 350 miles above the Earth, outside the atmosphere where they can measure things like solar radiation, the Earth’s magnetic fields, astronomy observations, and a whole host of other research topics. The missions are very short duration and the instruments reenter the atmosphere to sometimes burn up and sometimes to be recovered by parachute, but the short duration is offset by the relatively low cost.

The MARS complex has been slowly building up their capabilities over the years from suborbital, to Earth orbit, and soon lunar orbit. While it’s unlikely that they will ever conduct the large launches that we see out of Kennedy Space Center and Vandenberg AFB, Wallops and MARS are setting themselves up as the ideal launch site for lightweight orbital payload shots to the ISS and for corporations looking to put satellites into orbit. Given the trend in the miniaturization of electronics it looks like the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport is due to become a key player in the commercial launch world.

Tomorrow's Topic:  LADEE's Launch Profile and "Yo-yo de-spin"
Later this week: Where and When YOU might see LADEE launch!